Ready to redefine victory and embrace your spectrum of emotions? Jeff, our guest and a master of self-development, joins us on the dance floor of life to waltz through the perceptions of winning, losing, and the judgments that come with it. Tune in to our heartfelt and insightful exchange as we sway through the world of ballroom culture within the LGBTQIA community, examining the balance between competition and inclusion. We're peeling back the layers on how we perceive ourselves and others, with the rhythm of our conversation offering a fresh lens on personal expression and authenticity.
Let's get personal about growth, healing, and the power of Reiki with Jeff, a sensei of self-awareness and a beacon of nurturing energy. As we break bread over the fusion of therapy and cuisine, we're feeding more than just our bodies—we're fueling our souls. Our chat is a feast for the mind as we tackle shared trauma and the bond of family dynamics, served with a side of laughter and a generous helping of wisdom. Whether you're just starting your journey or you're well on the path, this episode is a guiding light for those navigating the healing process.
Ever find yourself playing the game of life by someone else's rules? We're shaking up the playbook and prioritizing our own paths, from corporate chains to entrepreneurial gains. Join us as we laugh over mushroom allergies, bond over shared struggles, and meditate on the "be-do-have" mantra that might just change your life. It's a call to listen to your body, trust your intuition, and find the meditation technique that suits you—because here at These Fucking Feelings, we know that self-discovery is not one-size-fits-all. So grab your metaphorical red cord and let's ground ourselves together in a journey toward embracing who we are and what we truly desire.
#TheseFukkenFeelings #Episode318 #embraceyourfeelings #selfdevelopment #perceptionsofvictory #ballroomculture #LGBTQIAcommunity #competitionandinclusion #personalperception #authenticity #growth #healing #powerofReiki #selfawareness #nurturingenergy #sharedtrauma #familydynamics #therapyandcuisine #healingprocess #playingbyourownrules #entrepreneurialgains #meditation #selfdiscovery #embracewhoyouare #desire #listenyourbody #intuition #metaphoricalredcord #groundingjourney
Ready to redefine victory and embrace your spectrum of emotions? Jeff, our guest and a master of self-development, joins us on the dance floor of life to waltz through the perceptions of winning, losing, and the judgments that come with it. Tune in to our heartfelt and insightful exchange as we sway through the world of ballroom culture within the LGBTQIA community, examining the balance between competition and inclusion. We're peeling back the layers on how we perceive ourselves and others, with the rhythm of our conversation offering a fresh lens on personal expression and authenticity.
Let's get personal about growth, healing, and the power of Reiki with Jeff, a sensei of self-awareness and a beacon of nurturing energy. As we break bread over the fusion of therapy and cuisine, we're feeding more than just our bodies—we're fueling our souls. Our chat is a feast for the mind as we tackle shared trauma and the bond of family dynamics, served with a side of laughter and a generous helping of wisdom. Whether you're just starting your journey or you're well on the path, this episode is a guiding light for those navigating the healing process.
Ever find yourself playing the game of life by someone else's rules? We're shaking up the playbook and prioritizing our own paths, from corporate chains to entrepreneurial gains. Join us as we laugh over mushroom allergies, bond over shared struggles, and meditate on the "be-do-have" mantra that might just change your life. It's a call to listen to your body, trust your intuition, and find the meditation technique that suits you—because here at These Fucking Feelings, we know that self-discovery is not one-size-fits-all. So grab your metaphorical red cord and let's ground ourselves together in a journey toward embracing who we are and what we truly desire.
#TheseFukkenFeelings #Episode318 #embraceyourfeelings #selfdevelopment #perceptionsofvictory #ballroomculture #LGBTQIAcommunity #competitionandinclusion #personalperception #authenticity #growth #healing #powerofReiki #selfawareness #nurturingenergy #sharedtrauma #familydynamics #therapyandcuisine #healingprocess #playingbyourownrules #entrepreneurialgains #meditation #selfdiscovery #embracewhoyouare #desire #listenyourbody #intuition #metaphoricalredcord #groundingjourney
You don't have to be positive all the time. It's perfectly okay to feel sad, angry, annoyed, frustrated, scared and anxious. Having feelings doesn't make you a negative person. It doesn't even make you weak. It makes you human and we are here to talk through it all. We welcome you to these fucking feelings podcasts, A safe space for all who needs it. Grab a drink and take a seat. The session begins now.
Speaker 2:What is up guys? Welcome to these fucking feelings podcast. I am Micah. I got Crystal over there in the producer booth. I ain't gonna tell nobody, but she messed up. Push the button.
Speaker 2:It took a long time to start this episode and we got our guest, jeff, right here. Now, jeff, before we actually get into introductions, we were having a conversation about the winning and losing aspect of life and how we kind of like create that, like we create a win-lose environment and what message that sends to some people. To add a little more context, I was talking about the ballroom culture and I was explaining to the Crystal basically what the ballroom culture was and I was saying and you know the creative categories to kind of, you know, be inclusive and be able to live out some of the things that they knew they can live out in the real world. But it made me think, like you created a competition, basically to judge each other. Isn't that kind of what you were trying to prevent in creating the ballroom culture the whole time? Like it's okay for us to judge you, but they can't judge you. Like I didn't get that concept, so I just wanted your take on it. We're just going to start off with a hard question.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's interesting, right. So in life, win or lose, I think, is a construct that we create, where it's like the fact that we're alive, we're winning. How many, how many millions of others sperm did I beat out to be born and be alive today? How many million? Very specific.
Speaker 2:She knew real quick. I'll ask why later.
Speaker 3:But yeah, so it's like the fact that we're alive and we've survived everything that's come our way in life, right, like to me, we're winning. Any experience I have, even if it's deemed in a traditional sense as a loss, it's just an experience that gives me more knowledge and insight for the next thing that I get to overcome. Now, putting it into the idea of, you said, ballroom culture right, so it's right. Yes, when we make it a competition, it creates that black and white kind of aspect of right and wrong. Right, but something especially, I think, as unique as dance and again, I don't know shit about dance. So ballroom specifically I don't know if there is a specific- I would talk a more LGBTQIA community ballroom culture.
Speaker 2:It was like really big in the 80s 90s I'm showing my age a little bit, yeah, so I was talking basically in that aspect of it. To go back to scenario I was at a barber shop and I was telling somebody that I wanted to foster hair. I mean foster hair, I wanted to foster kids. Right, that I wanted to foster kids and so I am a gay male and their response to me was oh, you want to be a house mother? Referring back to like a ballroom culture and I'm like okay.
Speaker 2:Why is that? The limitation on my life? You know? Why are you limited me to this, when you know it's like how I decide to change the world is how I decide to change the world, but it was like a limitation on it, you know, on what they expected me to do or want to do.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I hear a projection of their belief for the construct they're in onto you to be like oh, this is what I know is my reality. So then that means, with you wanting to do that, you fit into one of the two categories their mind can perceive.
Speaker 2:Right, okay, good way to explain it. So it's about perceiving.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's our perception, is our reality, and so some people live in a limited reality where they're in the construct of what's possible versus, especially with dance right and again I'm stuck on that example, but like dances, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:dance is a good example. I used to be able to dance, so let's talk about.
Speaker 3:But it's like how do we like? In some forms of dance there may be a right or a wrong way to perform a move, but dance itself there isn't a right or wrong. It's an expression of whatever the fuck you're feeling in a moment and it's for others to judge it. It could be again, it's all perception, like I think that was a cool move where someone else is like nah, you failed and did it wrong. Right, like, right, right Again. Perception.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I think that's a good leeway into going into your introduction. We kind of just let people introduce themselves, because I'm always going to miss something and I refuse you to leave this podcast with attitude.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, thanks for having me guys. It's been a cool to be here. My name is Jeff Yuki Kazusera and I am a self development sensei and a Reiki practitioner, and what that means is I support people with taking a look introspectively at what's going on. So do you care Any? Do you care? Do you carry any self limiting beliefs, self limitations or self sabotage? And taking a look at those patterns and understanding yourself on a deeper level.
Speaker 3:So bring about self awareness and self mastery and then developing the things that were not taught in school Self confidence, self love, self care, self respect, self worth, the things that growing up, it was like, oh, this would have been really supportive to know these tools and how to utilize them. But again, I had to seek that knowledge out externally in different places. It wasn't even all in one place. It was like, oh, here's one area I get to learn that, here's another one. So putting that all together into the way that I support people in their self development.
Speaker 3:And then the Reiki side of it is it's a Japanese healing modality that takes the universal life energy that exists around us and channels that into a person so that their body can then use it to perform the functions that it does on its own. So we're magical beings capable of healing and regenerating ourselves and all things. And Reiki is kind of like an external battery pack that you get to plug into and use the energy that is around us to support your body in those functions. So I kind of combine the two modalities to support with the healing of the body and the mind, because if we focus on just one and the other, one typically has something going on that will bring about the same issue later on.
Speaker 2:Right, ok, so where's? Where's this battery pack, and how do I plug in?
Speaker 3:So where are you physically based?
Speaker 2:I mean we are in New York. I always want to say Albany, but we're right outside of Albany.
Speaker 3:OK, so I'm on the West Coast, in California. Distance Reiki is a thing that is the energy, is able to transcend both time and space. I am my preference is to perform Reiki in person, hands on with the individuals I work with. But again, reiki at a distance is possible, something we could explore at another time, but I would, yeah, I would love to share a session with you in that.
Speaker 2:But, yeah it's for everything that you say is on my list, so I just want you to know what you offer in there. Ok, you might have met your challenge when you joined him on the podcast.
Speaker 3:I would love to face that yeah.
Speaker 2:OK, OK, I'm going to hold you to it like I do for everybody right. One thing I do with this podcast is I don't get me some free sessions.
Speaker 3:I also offer exploration calls and that's like a one time session of the self development side of things. So I'll send you some links after this.
Speaker 2:man, we can definitely, definitely, and I'll list them and, of course, in all the episodes and I was laughing at Crystal all day today because of your food for thought what?
Speaker 4:I was like you were talking about Reiki.
Speaker 2:Reiki yeah.
Speaker 4:And I was like is that a food or something? Where did the food come in?
Speaker 2:So I'm like you must have been hungry all day. She was the same thing like. I haven't seen him cook one thing and I was like he's eating your mind Hello.
Speaker 4:And one of the YouTube videos. I got that towards the end of it. And then one you had a lady laying on a table and you were doing something with your hands and I was like that's it right there. That's the food right there.
Speaker 2:She was like that is the seasoning. He is mixing it up.
Speaker 3:Have you guys ever seen the? They do something called like naked sushi? No, but where can we go? It's usually like a private thing, like people have like private events and they host it. But essentially they bring in like a model and then they put like the leaves on the model's body and then they lay out the sushi on them. So you're like when someone was laying out, that's what I was thinking, you were envisioning like she's going to eat off of her or something.
Speaker 4:Really, I was all day.
Speaker 2:I'm like where's the food? Where's the food? And no matter how much I try to explain it to her, you still so. You always go on a dish. Maybe just send her a recipe or something, something that you cook, because she know that you can do it.
Speaker 4:Okay, so a little rinky in there.
Speaker 3:So this is a good segue to the origin of the name of my business. So it started with this is just something I did with friends and family. Right, it would be they would come to me and they would vent or they would ask for advice and I'm like, okay, like there's something here. Like, for whatever reason, people gravitate to me for that. And you know, with friends, when you're catching up or you're hanging out, usually it's like, hey, let's go grab lunch or let's go grab dinner. And so I realized I was having a lot of these conversations over meals and when I was stepping away from kind of the corporate world, looking at what do I want to do, it's like, okay, well, what do I enjoy doing? I'm a huge foodie, I love to eat. So I was like, let me build my business around that and do what I've already been doing. And so I offer the option for people that are local to me or anyone willing to travel is to hold my sessions over a meal.
Speaker 3:And when we're eating, you know, the nervous system calms down. So you know, the sympathetic nervous system goes, reduces from the fight or flight to like, okay, we're safe, we're eating a meal, we're digesting food, so I'm not as anxious, and that allows you to get to deeper depths of vulnerability in your conversation. And so that's really where it originated. But it evolved over time because most of my clients are virtual, so I'm not having in-person sessions, and so part of my branding I'm redoing my logo right now because you know, as it is now, there's a food, a spoon and a fork in the logo Right, and so everyone's always like so do you have a food truck? Or like where's the food come in? Right, and so now I'm rebranding where the food word is a lot smaller and the thought is blown up, and so it's you know what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're going to keep track of it. Logos like to show at the crystal. Yeah, at least you're the only one.
Speaker 4:No, you're not, you're not.
Speaker 2:You're not. Look, and I didn't even think that way right away. To be, I was like food for thought. You know what I'm saying? It's the same thing. I feel like people will fuck your mind. So, hey, why, if you can fuck it, why can't you feed it? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, so uh. But now I have issues with food, right? You see, I'm one of those people I don't like to eat.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:So it will have to be over a box of food roll ups just to let you know you don't like to eat.
Speaker 3:I don't like to eat the act of it, the taste, what part of it do you not enjoy?
Speaker 2:all of it. I don't, I, I, I don't. I hate you when I.
Speaker 4:Like when we're having lunch. I have to say, well, do you want to eat with a spoon?
Speaker 2:I know they have to. Like ask me, what do you feel like? How do you feel like eating today? Not what do you want to eat, how do you feel like eating? Oh man, I'm just really weird. It's just so.
Speaker 2:I actually have like traumatic more traumatic experience than most people, and I think that, when it comes down to it, it became that eating was the one thing I could control, because everything in my life at that time was wasn't in my control. So I think, you know, I like I stopped eating because I didn't want to eat, because I would needed to control something, and I think that's where it came from. And now I'm like I'm just stuck with it, but like I don't know how, I'm the person that has to like order food and like know what we're going to eat, and it's the most frustrating and aggravating thing in the world and it caused me so much anxiety, and you think that my coworkers will realize that it does this to me. Okay, I'm about to have a nervous breakdown, you know, over like having to order lunch. It's ridiculous, though, but yeah, I really have an issue with food. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:Something we could explore during the exploration call. Right.
Speaker 2:It was like you know what I'm gonna shut up now.
Speaker 3:I'm curious what's your favorite food?
Speaker 4:I think it depends on the day right.
Speaker 2:It depends on who I am at that moment. Yeah for a week I'll eat. Mexican, and then I'll do Mexican, it's so much cheese.
Speaker 4:The burrito, please, yeah, yeah. And then I'm weird.
Speaker 2:I don't like cheese but I like nachos. So, yes, I will eat some cheese with nachos.
Speaker 3:Oh, you wouldn't even put the cheese on your nachos, so you eat dry ass nachos. So chips.
Speaker 2:Chips feel like some meat and some onions and peppers. That's pretty good. But honestly, I always tell people I'm a chicken's area and if I'm going to eat something that's going to be chicken. I don't know why they're such a nasty animal, but it's just I don't know. It's healthy. Yeah Well, I fry it, so I take a healthy part. I'm like it's got to be crunchy and dead and then it has to be like black, like I have to know it's dead, like I need to look at it, like I'm turning my chicken into jerky.
Speaker 3:Okay, have you ever had chicken jerky? It's pretty good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I eat it every day because that's how I cook. It's too dirty, it's totally oh, but seafood.
Speaker 3:Do you eat seafood?
Speaker 2:No, except for lately, I've been on my shrimp kick. Okay what's? Yeah, it's really weird. So I just looked at a menu one day a few weeks ago and I was like I want shrimp. And everybody just turns and looks at me because I only see food. So you know, that was a real dramatic experience. They're like are you okay? Like you shrimp? And now, ever since then, it's all I'm ordering a shrimp. It's just how it was. I mean, it has to be fried and I have to put lemon sauce on it and catch up and it's a thing.
Speaker 4:You did go through I got the phases.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like phases, it's like if I find something that I, that tastes good and I like to eat, I'll eat it for a long time, just because I finally found something, yeah, that I'm like okay.
Speaker 3:So I'm on the other end of that spectrum where it's like I don't eat to live, I live to eat. So it's like I like to explore new flavors, try new things, and just the experience of eating for me is a reward in itself. Now, I don't want to impose my perspective on this. No, no, please impose.
Speaker 3:But, I feel like there's a whole world, like the whole culinary world, is still unexplored by you. On one hand, that's exciting, right. There's just so many flavors out there that you haven't experienced yet, or textures, or just combinations of these things, and you guys are in, like New York, where there's a lot of great culinary things out there.
Speaker 2:Right, and all our goal is get white castle every time. Oh man Just a burger and a bun and the bun. Just I don't want nothing on it. No, catch up, man. You know what we probably should get to a point in this episode. Let's talk a little bit more about you.
Speaker 4:Well, he's trying to figure you out. That's why he's asking all these questions.
Speaker 3:I mean I could talk food all day, so please, you're going to have to help me to shut up now.
Speaker 2:My favorite thing to consume in the whole wide world is fruit roll ups. I don't know what catalogs did when they made them babies, but they are like I sleep with a box. It's serious. I have a relationship. I got his own pillow.
Speaker 4:It's like fruitness.
Speaker 2:It's amazing.
Speaker 3:One of my most shameful moments was in college. I used to smoke a lot of weed and I woke up one day on an unwrapped Twix bar that was half melted to my sheets. And then I ate it. But you know what?
Speaker 2:You look like someone that used to get high, so I don't know how to feel about that.
Speaker 3:How about that statement Like do I feel judged or is it like on brand? Like, okay, now for real.
Speaker 2:Get back serious now. Well, really not serious, but one thing I saw you do, so do you have a podcast? Do you do a podcast or you just do videos?
Speaker 3:I do like this where, like, I'll be a guest on someone else's, but you guys know it's a lot of work to set it up and record it, edit it and all the things. So my favorite thing is to just be a guest on someone else's and then, if they're able to, they share the recording with me and then I'll chop that up using a program called video AI and that gives me the Instagram short snippets of content from it. And then, every now and then, I do record my own, just content for, you know, promoting the brand.
Speaker 2:Right, Because I saw episode with you and your dad. Oh yeah, that was a fun one. So I was like that had to be, like I wish I could get one of my parents to sit in this chair and we can have a conversation, and I thought that was pretty number one, pretty cool that he did it. But it was also really cool how open you are. But how did that come to be?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, um, oh, it's been a journey with my dad. Um, so, growing up, he, I was always closer to my mom, so my mom was a stay at home mom, so you know, she was always around. I was close with her. He worked a lot. I didn't get close to him.
Speaker 3:There was a moment in high school so, um, I had, uh, I had gotten someone pregnant in high school and I was like fuck, I don't know what to do with this information. I kept it from them. And then one point, it was like, okay, I should tell somebody, you know. So I had a conversation by dad and I sat down and he was always the one that was way more strict and he would always be the one to yell at me for shit in the house. And it was like, okay, I don't know how this is going to go, but man to man, let me just have this conversation.
Speaker 3:And once I told him, he was just like, okay, shit happens. And I was like not the response I was expecting. And it was like, okay, like, yeah, like he, he, we could finally relate to something or whatever. It was right. So that was something that opened the door. Um, after that, you know, we still had our differences and we didn't really get along, um, just because he was so strict and stern and I was more of kind of a free spirit or a black sheep Right.
Speaker 2:And then, um, when I left to go to college, I was trying to think of the word he used to describe you, but uh, it was there and then I lost it, but basically it was kind of like the one yeah, it was like the one they couldn't wheel in you know difficult one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know, I know what you're talking about. He used a certain word and I can't remember what it was.
Speaker 2:He didn't use the word, it was on the song, but yeah.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, when I left for school um, not being kind of under his, his roof with his rules and everything it allowed more space and allowed us to kind of empathize with each other more. And as I grew older, um, you know, I stepped into business and that was kind of his realm of things and he was able to really interact with us as kids because everything in his world was work related in business, Right, but as an entrepreneur, when I started to dabble in these things, that was an area of common ground we could relate to Um. And then becoming involved in the Japanese American community um, what he does for work, he's a consultant for Japanese companies that want to do business in the U? S and so he bridges that gap. And so when I started to be involved in, you know, creating a Japanese American club at my college that didn't exist then you know, it was like, oh cool, he's kind of relating to the culture in a similar way, and so we started to build these bonds in this connection, Um, and we shared some trauma too.
Speaker 3:In 2017, um, we had family pass away and it was like, you know, three people on his side. Um, not back to back, but all in the same year it was like what's going on?
Speaker 2:We're still back to back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and one of the most traumatic ones was, uh, he was on the phone with his sister, my aunt, and, um, she was driving home from planning my cousin's wedding, her daughter. They were having a meeting at my grandma's house planning the wedding and, uh, it was like a week out from the wedding it was a destination wedding in Hawaii and they were on the phone and she was venting about something like they had been arguing over, you know, the color of the napkins at the reception. Oh, wow, and she's like you know she wants to do it this way and she's like, but I think she should do it this way, and my dad's like, it's her wedding, like why are you tripping, you know? And then, um, they were on the phone and you know, all of a sudden he just hears a crash and he goes. There was a lady that was drunk driving on the wrong side of the freeway. She was going southbound on the northbound side and they hit each other head on and he heard the impact and, um, because they hit each other head on, the headlights had gone out, so there was no way for anyone else seeing on the road to see the wreckage. Um, and he's like he can hear her. He's yelling into the phone, are you okay? What happened? And then he hears a second impact, and that second impact was a semi-trunk that wasn't able to see the damage and so he ran into the wreckage and then it was just silence. So my dad actually heard my aunt pass away on the phone, and it was a week before, you know, her daughter's wedding.
Speaker 3:Um, and during that time, you know, I was nowhere near where I am now in my spiritual journey or my self development. It was just leaning into. You know, I was in my mid twenties, leaning into, you know, partying, going out and distracting myself, and so when this happened, it was like oh nope, that's fucked up, I don't want to think about it, I don't want to deal with it, I'm not going to process it, surrounded myself with people and weed, smoking weed heavily right, just not wanting to face it.
Speaker 2:I figured that's when it came into play.
Speaker 3:And so, um, you know, that year there was so much going on I didn't feel any of it. Um, I was, you know, eating edibles and just numbing out. I remember my other aunt, when I went to her funeral, you know, I went with sunglasses on because I'd eaten an edible the night before and I woke up still high out of my mind and I remember sitting in the church just with sunglasses on, like, oh, like I'm not here at all, I'm not feeling this, I'm not grieving it. And then afterwards it was like, fuck, I never got the opportunity to really process what happened, I never got to grieve it. And then, when I wanted to, I realized I couldn't, like, so much time had passed and I'd pushed it down so far, it was like I can't cry anymore. So, for about five years from 2017 to 2021, 2022, like I couldn't cry and I realized like, oh, I fucked myself up, like I got to do something about this, I got to figure out how to reconnect to my emotions. And so I set out on this journey of self development and, um, creating the business that I have today. And part of that journey, um, you know, I started to post those videos and create content and had a friend from college who reached out and was like, hey man, you know, see what you're doing and I, you know, I want to support you in it and I'm going through this program right now. That, uh, I think could support you in some of the healing and the things that you're talking about. It really resonates and it was um, it's transformational workshop kind of group environment that you do. You know some of this, some of these aspects of what we're talking about, um in a group.
Speaker 3:So he introduced me to that and I went through the program and the process and I was like Holy shit, like day one I stepped in there and I was able to cry. It's like, oh, this is what I've been looking for, this is what I've been trying to connect to and going through that process, I'm like this is so healing for me and the people I care about don't know about it. And so one of the people I told about it was my dad and I remember having a conversation with him, sharing with him. Just you know I was. I was on the phone, crying, telling him you know what had come up, and like sharing the experience of what it must have been like for what he went through, where it's like I didn't process it. I don't know how you managed to deal with it. We never talked about it, it never came up at home, I never heard him express it and he just kind of went about life as if it didn't happen. In an emotional sense, right. And then there were aspects that you know were hard to deal with, but he never emotionally processed it. That I observed.
Speaker 3:And so when I introduced him to this, you know we actually fought about it several times and on that call that, that call that you were able to see he, I brought it up and I talked about it and he was like I don't know. You know he wasn't so sure about it, but eventually he, he opened up to it and he was like, all right, I'm going to check it out. You know you've been talking about it for a while, I'm going to sign up and he went through it. I'm telling you here's what was going on back then that I had a abbiamo and I don't think I've got so much of a picture of that in the world. It's a three segmented process.
Speaker 3:During the second segment, you know, he came home from one of the weekends and he was just like I get it. You know, thank you for being persistent and getting me through to join this, this organization, and go through experience, because it opened up so much for him and he was able to connect to his biological dad, who he'd been estranged from for 55 years. Oh, wow, and there was just so much. You know, he's like he left the family when we were younger and so he held on to resentment and stuff. He's like, yeah, like fuck that guy, like I don't know anything about him, I don't want anything to do with him, right, but he came out of that program was like with this forgiveness in his heart. He was like I want to reach out and connect to him and so they they've met up and connected and for about eight months they got to form and build a relationship together.
Speaker 3:Before you know that grandpa passed away and you know he's so thankful for that opportunity because it would have happened had I not been Persistent with, you know, going through the healing that he was able to do and parts of it stemmed from me doing that recording with him when it was like, hey, you know that I want to talk to you about some of the stuff that I was able to unpack going through this program when you know there's a heavy Focus on, you know, the relationship we'd have with our parents and our family, because so much generational trauma has passed down to us that we don't know what to do with, and he was open enough.
Speaker 3:Where we've had these other conversations, he helped me develop my business, where he was, you know, one of my very first clients when I was trying out and understanding how to develop the program that I have, and so he's been supportive for the journey and it was like my way of kind of, you know, bringing it full circle, like okay, well, let me introduce you to all the things and all the aspects of what I've unlocked and uncovered for myself, and it's been so cool to share that with him, where he's been open-minded and realizing you know, it's not just a one-way street where growing up, I learned a lot from him and now it's now he's able to learn a lot from you too.
Speaker 2:Okay, full circle. Yeah, it's like that will be my mama, where you know she raised me and I'm raising her. But number one I wanted to say, because crystals look like she's looking at you and not at the camera and we're still so I just want to know she's not looking down and like she's paying attention.
Speaker 4:I am. I'm looking at you because we just actually had this discussion how you were raised to, when somebody's speaking, to look at them. So when he's speaking, I'll look at him, and then when you're speaking, I look over here at you because I don't have it's just, it's weird.
Speaker 2:We're look, we're still figuring it out. Okay, we're still figuring it out. We're pretty noodle podcasting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my camera's above me or right above the lens. So what I'm looking here, it's at you guys, even though look to look at you was down below right.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right, and I'm trying to look at the camera, but then I want to look at you too and I'm like Chris over here looking down and I know people, the people like they sold us respectful he over here talking about all this deep stuff.
Speaker 4:But I'm looking at you, I'm really looking at yeah no, I wanted to say that too.
Speaker 2:It was important for you to know that we were Definitely engaged now but to talk a little.
Speaker 2:So, like my ish, I don't know, my healing journey has been strange because, I don't know, I kind of went up Guess I found I needed to be healed when I was by myself. It's really hard to explain. My healing journey became about me Helping myself to heal, you know. So because of that I didn't bring in a lot of outside things, you know. So now I'm like in this state of healing where, you know, it's like, you know, people talk and we'll have this conversation and you'll say things to make sense and they said things that make sense and it's like, but my mind doesn't slow down enough to be spiritual or to find an aspect of spirituality. Look, you know, I'm over there trying to meditate and I'm meditating about how I'm on the design, my meditation room.
Speaker 4:Okay, you're gonna say something about fruit roll-ups Fruit roll-up in the meditation room.
Speaker 2:I guess I'm from Fruit Roll-Up Pillows, but and then it's like I went to. I went to this place one time with a friend of mine and they had like this song that they sang that was like two hours long and I'm like, bro, isn't it over? And it's like been two minutes and I'm like I don't have the attention span to heal the way other people heal. I Don't know how to slow down my mind. Are you raising your hand?
Speaker 3:I'll just wait it. Right, I want to let you get out whatever, but I also was wanting to bring us back to the very beginning of this, where you know the, the what was it? The ballroom example of right. What I'm hearing is you're you're comparing your healing journey to how it looks for others. Right, right, right, and it's. There is no right or wrong?
Speaker 2:Well, really that's not what I'm doing. What I am saying is that I know that I'm at a point now where I need help from the outside, but trying to get that help, I'm still trying to control my healing. I guess that's kind of where I was really saying okay, I'm in my healing phase right now was like you didn't go to school for this, so you don't know what you're doing. You know and you need to buy outside help. You know, right, and you know. And I had a therapist and the worst thing she ever do was she. She quit on me.
Speaker 4:But yeah, I'm out of talk.
Speaker 2:That's what she did. She taught me how to talk and she said now go out there and talk to people you love, and you know I just nothing else I could do for you. She felt like he was at a limit. Just go out there to talk, and now I just can't shut up right In all that. It's like I feel like you know, it's like you Spiritrality, and then it's like the Bible. And then I have friends that are Muslim and I recently just met someone who was a Buddha and was like, yeah, I legit chant like Tina Turner, and I was like, okay, like I'm dyslexic, I can't even say that stuff. But it's like how do you, how would you work with a patient near me? But yeah, basically I'm a patient, but how would you work with someone like that, like is that someone? I know I'm not the only person in this world who has this busy mind that it lets me get 30 minutes of sleep a night how do you work with someone who doesn't slow down? Oh, I'm I earnly, it's utterly completely resonate with that.
Speaker 3:So I have self-diagnosed ADHD. I've never formerly been like through a thing, but it's like every single sign exists, right. So I've just accepted that and I Operate at a very rapid rate where it's like go, go, go, go go. When I have a moment to slow down, it's like let me fill it with something else to do rather than roll, let me do some other things, right. So I have found that a lot of it is when it's a practice, right. So building the mental fortitude to understand ourselves and the way that we operate, and then to picking and choosing in each and every moment what is aligned to what we're trying to create now.
Speaker 3:Meditation when I started I was like You've seen the matrix, right? Where when, like Nio's thinking about something, then the whole everything just blows out and he's just standing in a blank white room. I thought that was what meditation was. So I'd always be sitting there trying to clear my mind, like this is fucking impossible. There's even me trying to think about nothing. I'm thinking about thinking about nothing, like there's no way to do this and Right. And then I was like okay, this is like the master level of like enlightenment and meditation and I'm trying to start there. So I found guided meditations. Guided meditations are we listen to someone else? And even in those it's like I'll check in and check out, like I'm listening to that, I'll say something, and then I'm like, oh yeah, like squirrel, right.
Speaker 3:Right For me is for me is a fish okay, and then it's like, but it also gives you something to come back to, to be like okay, okay, wait, I realized I'm checked out, let me come back to what they're saying. And sometimes it's I will just go on that tangent and allow the Thoughts to unravel and see what comes up. And other times it's like let me stay focused on this specific meditation. The way I look at it now, though, is when we read books or when we're studying material. That's like the weightlifting of the mind. Right, you're stretching the muscles and doing the things.
Speaker 3:Meditation becomes the cardio of the mind To be able to build the endurance for the other tasks and expand the mind and the capacity that it holds, and so meditation has many different forms, and I've realized there's different intentions. There'll be days when I want to meditate, to Reanalyze the day or just think back on. Okay, I just got home from this event, let me digest everything that happened in all the conversations I had, so then I'll process and think about everything that just happened. There'll be times when it's like I have high anxiety and I'm like, oh, I'm freaking out, I need to ground myself, so I'll do like a meditation to calm the mind and focus on specific Trains of thought Right, and then other meditations for clearing energy, or so there's all these different ways to utilize the tool. Very similar to like there's many ways to do cardio. You could ride a bike, you could run right, you can swim. There's different ways to do the thing. So, meditation, similar and it's really I'm gonna tell you just a little bit.
Speaker 2:See, as soon as you started bringing in cardio, you lost me. I don't do nothing that has nothing to do with working out Okay. So I need you to think another example, because I was following you until you say cardio Okay, and then I'm thinking about no, no, right now I gotta do a bike, I gotta run what? No, my ancestors did enough running. Okay, I'm tired for them.
Speaker 3:but Think of it like a nap. You could take a nap in a chair, in a couch.
Speaker 2:On a bed. One more time, one more time. Okay, you said you don't sleep. I don't sleep. Yeah, I was late.
Speaker 3:You don't sleep, you don't eat, you don't do cardio.
Speaker 2:Told you I'm gonna work in progress. Okay, I have a word and it works all day.
Speaker 2:I do work all day. I do work all day long and and I and I have a very needy family. I hope they don't watch this episode. My family is very needy. So, as I work, do a podcast, promote the podcast, edit the podcast, post the podcast. Talk to my best friend about her drunk boyfriend that she's been with for two years and I'm tired of hearing about him now. So this I want you to listen, to get rid of his ass, because I want to hear about it, no more.
Speaker 3:That's what introduction introduce her to me.
Speaker 2:Okay, so Look, I don't think you can handle bam.
Speaker 2:You said her name Sorry, pam and Seattle, edit this. We keep this authentic for real. She could call me Pam project, right, but but no, really, seriously, I don't even know what's going with that. I guess I was just saying my mind, I don't know. I get you meditation, but yeah, you just messed up with the cardio and I was like he don't tell you, make it now Meditation to be working out. I ain't never gonna do it. You don't mess it up for me, so I need you to fix it.
Speaker 3:Okay, let me think. Think of it like eating a fruit roll it, you can take a bite of it, you can roll it up and make it a ball. You can all the different ways, right? There's many ways to do the thing and it's never turned into a ball, so okay.
Speaker 3:You can suck on each piece and not chew it. You can chew it, you can Wrap it around other candy. So there's there's many ways to do the thing, the same way that meditation has many forms, and so you get to find the one that works for you.
Speaker 2:Oh right, that was the point I was trying to make no, no, definitely, even though I'm being serious and silly at the same time. It has been really hard to like find that Part. You know that like it's hard to find that moment where I'm quiet enough to meditate.
Speaker 4:Well, he just said that you meditation can also be just sitting back thinking of what you did all day. So is that that's a form of meditation?
Speaker 3:Yeah, to just like process your thoughts, but give your spouse the the space in the time, right? Do you ever intentionally sit and be like I'm gonna think, or is it just always running?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's always running. I'm thinking now, as we talking, already know what I'm making for dinner, what I gotta do with my mama. I already got a calculator. We finished this about five, fifty nine, and then, you know, we shut down the computer. No, I'm not that bad, but my brain is constantly moving, moving, moving, moving, and I'm aware of.
Speaker 4:Like we will be in a conversation and We'll be talking about something and I'll switch. Like before we talked, we had like five conversations all at the same time.
Speaker 2:You see how this interview was going. I mean, I feel like, Like this guy has done a lot of podcasts and he's like these fucking feelings. It's a fucking mess. But I promise we're not Okay really. I told you we haven't done this in two months. We took a break. Okay, we came back. Now we're gonna do this again.
Speaker 4:I'm okay now I didn't know meditation that was meditation. So I mean, he did teach me something.
Speaker 2:I know that's right, so go ahead, take it over. Let's go shut up the rest of the show.
Speaker 4:So what I do besides the meditation?
Speaker 3:say again.
Speaker 2:I guess I'm gonna ask her question, though really quickly though. So like, in what stage in a person's healing journey or outside of the healing journey would they contact you, and why?
Speaker 3:I've had people come from all different Like levels or wherever they're at. The primary thing that needs to be Present is the willingness. If they're willing to be like, yeah, I want to step into this and it's. I know it's gonna be difficult, I know that you can't do it for me, but I need that level of support. That's the main thing I look for.
Speaker 3:I come, I've had people come to me where they're advanced in their healing journey and it's like I don't know if there's a lot you could teach me. And then, as we talk and working through, it's like they realized the I can't see itself. And so there's always it's always great I have these conversations and bounce things off of somebody else that can resonate. No, I'm sorry. And Then there's also people who are just starting out. Right, it's like I don't know where to go.
Speaker 3:I I've, you know, I've explored these other things, or I've tried therapy or I've talked to my psychologist, and then what's interesting about that world is there's a lot of red tape, there's a lot of places they're not allowed to go and at the same way, it's like I'm cautious around. You know, if somebody's struggling with suicidal ideations, I want to make sure that they are seeking the appropriate professional help in that realm. But there's also a level of overlap where it's like I am not a therapist or a psychologist, but the things we talk about are very introspective. Where we're talking about your subconscious, we're talking about your past and things that have happened, and what is it that you want to move towards. And so, micah, and what you've been sharing, you're talking about the way that you operate. But the way that you operate is also something that you learned and it's a habit that's been developed over time that most likely stemmed from the defense mechanism or a way to protect yourself, right.
Speaker 2:And addiction. You know it's like. You know I feel like people don't realize children's have addiction. You know we have addictions too and I mean it was, it was my way to cope as a child and I still cope that way as an adult and it's so hard to break. Yeah, and it's not that I'm not willing. I just haven't had the right method come across it, you know, or the right teacher or tutor, because I've tried different things and I've talked to people in this podcast and that you know they offer sessions too and I'm like I'm waiting let's do this.
Speaker 2:I'm excited and then it's like I don't see the green thing you talking about. I don't see it, it's not there. So I got, is it a door you like you know? So.
Speaker 3:It's. I find that there's always a level of chemistry, too, where it's like the people I interact with resonate with who I am, my journey, the way that I talk and the words that I use, and then I also adapt that to the individual. But again it's, we both kind of feel this resonance of oh, I feel like we can work together. And so you for you, finding the right person that you can relate to and resonate with is just as important.
Speaker 2:Definitely, and I think it's important for everybody. You kind of like you said it's just important. I mean, and I think that's also another thing that I felt really close with my therapist and then they have for quit on me Like bitch, we've been together for two years, Right, like we've been together for two years, and you just think you're gonna end this and I'm not gonna bust the windows on Cho'Kor.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, so it just made me go right back to you know what I'm saying. The craziness like maybe I have abandonment issues too, even though I've never been abandoned, I don't think Well it can be multiple ways, right.
Speaker 3:So it doesn't always look like physical abandonment. Sometimes it's emotional or just right, definitely Like. I had some of that with my dad, where it's he went to work. He didn't actually abandon me, he was always home, but he left for work, and so I created that story in my mind and there's still the trauma from it, right definitely so, does it actually?
Speaker 2:You know me. One thing I always think about is like when I look back at my day, I'm always I think I was just growing up being a feminine. Look, I came out. I came out my mama, with a twist and a twang, you know she says when I was in her belly I didn't kick her. I used to be like, eh, so, so. But growing up in those times you know it was a lot of well, you can't grow to be gay, you're going to hell or this, and you know it was a lot of negative things. So I always kind of grew up with a shame. Just, I was ashamed anyway, every day of my life. I was just ashamed because people told me I should be ashamed.
Speaker 4:So even now, Fear of being abandoned, though, Say it again Maybe it was a fear of being abandoned.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what it came from. Like, you know your parents give you rules, kind of go back to what you say. You know it was like. You know your parents tell you listen to adults. You know, respect your elders. But now this elder is telling me I'm going to hell because I'm a little gay boy so but I'm supposed to listen to and respect her. You know so. No one ever taught me that that became the truth. Listen to or respect the right, but it didn't mean that it had to be right and that it was right or that it applied to me. You know cause I believe individual truths as well. You know what works for me was don't work for you. But you know so it was like I automatically assume respect and listen to means what they're saying is right.
Speaker 2:And then I grew up in a Puerto Rican community where they just wasn't having no gay people back in that day even though everybody had a little gay boy in the house, but it's like they can see it in everybody else, but couldn't see it in the home. You know, I'm sorry. No, I'm going off in the tangent, but it's just. I just got issues. I got issues. This is my year of healing, okay, but go say that, jeff.
Speaker 3:I'd love to share with you kind of the five steps that I work with my clients through, and if any of that resonates with you, please take it. So the first step is awareness being aware, right, there's something to work through or that it's having an effect on your life in many areas. The second step is acceptance. So accepting that this is something that is a part of your past, something that happened, rather than being in denial like, no, that that doesn't relate to this or that. Right, we don't realize, subconsciously, how everything is intertwined and connected. So accepting that it has some effect on you. The third step is forgiveness, and it's forgiveness of both yourself and anyone else involved. So all of your elders that told you anything negative about yourself, you get to forgive them, because I don't believe their intention was to do you any harm. They just, in their minds, believed that that was their reality.
Speaker 2:right, like we don't want you to go to hell, it's what they were taught, the same way as what I was taught yeah.
Speaker 3:So these deeper levels of compassion for them, for yourself to realize, yeah, like as a little kid, you didn't know any better. You just this is what you were told, that's what was taught to you, and so you get to forgive yourself for allowing it to happen, even though you didn't know any better, or all the things that you may hold on to or feel that you're responsible for, and when in reality, you didn't have control of those things. The fourth step is acceptance, again so much like a physical scar on our body. The pain may go away, but it's always gonna be a part of your past and your experience. So there may be times when something traumatic happens and we're like I wanna put that away and just be done with it. I never wanna have to revisit it.
Speaker 3:But in doing so we don't realize how we're stunting our growth and our healing because it will continuously tie to other things. And the fifth step is getting comfortable with revisiting it over and over, Very similarly, where it's like you get to unpack it multiple times because you'll realize how it correlates to other areas of your life as you grow and learn and level up. It'll be like these are the most obvious ones. I understand Now that I understand that, you get to see how it actually splinters out and becomes, this network of it may tie to your relationship with food. It may tie to your relationship with sleep and all the other areas that we don't directly correlate it to, but it has an impact on.
Speaker 2:And it's pretty funny, cause a lot of things you said is kind of like I'm pretty good in some of those areas. I had those check marks. I always think of shampoo, bottle wash rinse repeat. So I've kind of been doing that when it comes to this journey is like wash rinse repeat. You know what I'm saying. So I kind of been doing that.
Speaker 2:My biggest issue is guilt, because I had peaceful moments. I know what peace is. There's a lot of things. I forgave a lot of people in my life. I learned that a lot of things that happened to me had nothing to do with me at all. So it was like a lot of those things that I should learn. In my healing process I learned.
Speaker 2:Now my biggest issue is that I found what I love to do Talk right and eat for all of us but no, really it's like I'm living a decent life. You know I don't want for anything. This is probably the best I've ever been in my life, just by myself. Like I know what it's like to be happy. I climbed out of some deep trenches and I'm good, but the people around me aren't there and I feel guilty. It's like having a survivor's guilt in a way. I feel guilty that I'm there and they're not. So, and then, because of that, I become an enabler. Now and now I'm doing everything for them and I'm trying to solve all their problems, because I'm trying to get them where I'm at when I need to just mind my damn business. Maybe you didn't have to give my answer, I just gave it to myself. I'm gonna mind my damn business what you got to say, jeff.
Speaker 3:That has always been the most difficult part in the healing journey is the shedding of relationships, because we hold onto these things, and especially with family. It's like you know you always want the best for those closest to you friends, family, loved ones. It's like you know I want what's best for you. And as you grow in awareness, you realize the patterns other people hold right. You spot it, you got it. So the moment you work through something for yourself, you start to see it in everyone around you and you're like, oh my God, the moment you realize this and work through it, your life will get so much better, because mine did. But we can't do that, work for other people. We can't want it more than they do. And so you get to make that choice of, like you said, am I enabling or am I actually supporting them? And there's something you know intention versus effect. We may have the right intention, but what's the effect that it's having? And so in a lot of cases I find that I have to separate myself and I go through these.
Speaker 3:Evolutions of my entire circle will change the people I was around for a period of time, or for the last year. It's like no longer resonates because I'm now in a different space or I'm focused on a different thing, and a lot of my friendships before were people that worked in the corporate space and I struggled as an entrepreneur because no one could relate to why I was working the way that I did or how much time was being invested or wanting to go out on nights and weekends. And when I separated myself from that and stepped into a space of being around more entrepreneurs, it was like, oh, my people, you get it right. It's like, yeah, I don't have time, but we can hang out with a quick call, right. Like that's our hangout time.
Speaker 3:Outside of that, it's like I gotta get back to work, because my entire business depends on what my output is for me as an individual, and then finding time for self-care and those other things leaves little time for anyone else, and your friends in a nine to five don't see it that way.
Speaker 3:And so these evolutions of having to separate yourself and surround yourself by the people that are in a similar space it can be very difficult because we form these attachments and wanting to almost drag people with us, like come on, guys, we're going this direction, right, and having I got a whole bus outside, yeah. And so it's like that realization of you get to meet people where they're at, and sometimes that means leaving them where they are, and that's okay. It doesn't mean you cut them off, it's just hey, I'm gonna go do this thing, you can come with me, the door is open, but I can't force you to and I need to go. I can't wait for you. Right, and not feeling guilty about it, but just recognizing that my right path isn't the right path for everyone else. And so I get to go on that journey solo and be okay with it, because they'll get that point in their life when they're ready to Right.
Speaker 2:I hear you, but I'm still guilty.
Speaker 3:Damn Self-compassion right Like you're not responsible for other people's well-being and their happiness. You're responsible for yours.
Speaker 2:And it is, I mean, that thing to me. I feel like if I can work that out and then maybe I'll be able to get a little spiritual. But I wanna look, I wanna be mushroom high. I wanna see clouds of rainbows and unicorns. Like I'm trying to get to that plane. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:Did you guys come across any of that content yet?
Speaker 2:Have we yes, we don't have some psychedelic conversations, so we got some pretty good ones coming up soon. So I'm like, yes, give me a mushroom, even though I'm allergic to them. So damn, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 3:So you're allergic to like the vegetable mushroom or the root mushroom, whatever's classified as.
Speaker 2:Whatever that is, yeah what I get the-.
Speaker 4:I think that has mushrooms in it. Yeah, mushrooms, it's just-.
Speaker 2:That's why I don't play Super Mario Brothers, cause I just don't know it's in the family, your body actually reacts or like you, just don't like the-. Yeah, we're talking about the affixation. My neck starts to close up, oh, okay, yeah, like I have to, I have to get my happy pen.
Speaker 4:Pen of Drill, and I ain't stabbing him with a pen, so he ain't doing that.
Speaker 2:It's human, it's my support system, so now I gotta stay here and stab myself.
Speaker 4:Oh my God, I couldn't even run.
Speaker 2:But I would never have no problem stabbing you Crustle. That is how much I love you. I love you enough to stab you okay.
Speaker 4:High times, are you still stabbing?
Speaker 2:me. I'm gonna get your ass up. You gonna wake up today. Oh sorry, Jeff, we just have a little moment.
Speaker 4:We were together during the day too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're together all the time. We have the secret love affair People accuse of I'm like I'm gay. When I tell you I'm gay, like I'm allergic to pussy, Like the same thing, my throat closes up. I gotta go to the hospital. Happy pen, Like I am allergic.
Speaker 4:What is he in here for?
Speaker 2:But no, Jeff, check it out right how you bleed for four to seven days and don't die. You bleed that long. You supposed to be dead. I don't got time for it. That shit's otherworldly, and I just ain't that woke yet.
Speaker 3:But see, micah, that's us projecting our experience onto women, right? We don't understand. It Doesn't mean it's not their reality. That's something that they just that's part of their knowledge.
Speaker 2:I know I get it and I accept that it is their reality. I also accept that I don't like it. I don't know. I just don't Like I legit and I've had intercourse women before. Once again, because I feel like when I love people I gotta do stuff for them. So yeah, they be loving me and want to have sex, and then afterwards I'm like throwing up and I'm like sick and like it's crazy and I'm like I don't even know how you could have felt good about that, like I just threw up after.
Speaker 4:But Sort of like crying.
Speaker 3:Sort of like crying Shout the mouth instead of the eyes.
Speaker 2:Trying to help me out here, jeff is like please don't play this episode, do not put my name with you. Know what, jeff? Because you, our next episode is going to be better, ok.
Speaker 4:You're not offended or anything, right.
Speaker 3:Oh no, this has been a blast. It's funny.
Speaker 2:It's like this guy is crazy. So, you still want me to call you now? That's the question, right?
Speaker 3:Oh no, I'm for sure sending you links.
Speaker 2:He's right in the down. Look, it's been 52 minutes and you sure.
Speaker 3:I want to know where I can sign up to be back for season four and come back we could have the sex talk.
Speaker 2:You can have that talk in season three. Like I'm going to send you the link of our open dates.
Speaker 3:Let's run it again, I'm with it.
Speaker 2:Yes, go back to back Honestly. We can discuss that afterwards. But now for real, for real, getting serious again. Is there anything that you would like to say to our audience? Our main audience are people who are kind of in my situation. We're looking at Hill, we know there's methods out there. I don't want to feel crazy and go to psychiatrist. I don't want to take a whole lot of pills. I'm not saying that's not necessary for everybody and I'm for it. I mean, if you need it, you need it. But most people are like I'm not there, but I need some kind of help. What would be your words of encouragement to them and just convincing them to work on themselves and why it is important?
Speaker 3:Yeah, first off, to explore meditations and start with whatever you feel comfortable with. I like to. Actually, interesting enough, if you guys are open to it, I could actually close this out with a bit of a guided meditation, but really connecting to our bodies, because our bodies are always communicating to us what it needs. We've just been accustomed to shutting that down and overriding it consciously for what we feel like is more important. We're always seeking instant gratification. We're always looking at what's the next thing I got to do. Most people operate from the idea of that I need to do something to have something, to be something. I got to do this to have success, to be happy. We don't realize the correct order is be the thing so that anything you do will create what you want to have. By being happy, by being healthy. Everything you do and everything you touch will create that reality where you'll have all the things that you want Be do. Have is the appropriate order.
Speaker 3:Now, everyone's journey is unique and different. Every individual is unique and different. Stepping away from the constructs of what we feel like it should be, even the perception around a therapist or a psychologist means that we're broken or something is wrong with us. That's not true. Sometimes the best course of action for people is to see a therapist or a psychologist. It's just like a coach or a person that you date. You're going to have to go through a bunch of shitty relationships before you find the one that resonates and works for you. Don't get discouraged by like I've had three therapists and they all suck and it's terrible. I went through 42. The prime example right Then you found one that worked and then the relationship ended, which that door closed and opened you up for a new possibility.
Speaker 3:Now it's what's next on Micah's journey. So, exploring and following your intuition of what your body is communicating with you, it'll tell you. You'll know. You'll get intuitive hits in your stomach, in your head, in your chest, like this feels right or this feels wrong. And getting in tune with, to connect to what your body is sharing with you, like this feels aligned to me, I want to have another conversation, I want to explore this thing or no. Like that person's energy is shit and I feel bad when I'm with them, trusting that, overriding what your conscious mind may say, where it's like oh, this is a family member, I'm somebody I'm supposed to respect, or that's a trained professional, it's okay for us to be out of alignment with other people and just trusting that intuition. And yeah, kind of going back to the guided meditation, I'd love to kind of guide us through kind of connecting to the body in a moment, if you guys are open to that.
Speaker 2:Look, I'm with it. I ain't gonna promise anything. What I need to do?
Speaker 3:sit like Buddha just so get comfortable. Be comfortable If you want to have your feet on the floor, if you want to have them cross. Just be comfortable in the space. And yeah, I invite you to breaking the crystal.
Speaker 3:So people like to lay down, so people like to yeah whatever is comfortable for you. So anyone listening or watching, feel free to join in on us. And, yeah, my invitation to you is to go ahead and relax and take a deep breath in, really feel your chest expand and then a slow exhale out the mouth. Take another deep breath in, really feeling your chest expand, almost like there's a balloon inside you, and then a slow exhale as if that balloon is deflating and kind of feeling your body collapse inward, then just allowing your breathing to return to normal. And I invite you to bring awareness to the very top of your head. Can you feel any breeze, any air current in the room? Are you wearing a hat, headset? Is there anything that you can sense or feel at the very top of your head? Then, moving awareness down to your eyebrows Are they furrowed? Are you frowning, releasing any tension there and just relaxing and bringing your awareness down to your eyelids Are they heavy? Are you tired? Are they light? Do you feel energized? And again, just connecting to what the body is always communicating with us and giving us feedback around. Connecting to your jaw Is your jaw clenched or are you feeling anxious and stressed? Going ahead and actually activating that muscle, clenching the jaw and then releasing it. Then you return to a relaxed state, bringing awareness now down to your shoulders and your neck, maybe rolling your head side to side. Do you feel any weight or tension? Does it feel like you're carrying a burden? And bringing your shoulders up to your ears and then letting them fall away and relax? Bringing awareness down to your arms, taking notice of your hands. What are your hands doing right now? Are they clenched and fists? Are they relaxed and open to receive? What state are you currently in?
Speaker 3:Taking another deep breath in and feeling the rise and fall of your chest, connecting to your chest and what lies there. Is there any anxiety that you're carrying? Is there any tension and where does it live? Can you feel your heartbeat? Can you feel the rise and fall of each breath? Are you aware of that right now? Bringing awareness now down to our solar plexus or stomach. Are you hungry? Are you full? Is there anything being stored energetically here, physically, just be aware of what's being communicated to you. Is it time for you to nourish? Is it time for you to relax and digest Other butterflies? Is there anxieties or excitement? What's alive within you right now, being aware of what your body is communicating.
Speaker 3:Bringing now down to our tailbone or our root chakra, feeling the weight of what's underneath us, the texture, the feel. Are you in a soft chair, a hard one? Are you sitting or standing? Are you laying down? Just being aware of what you feel underneath you. Bringing awareness down to the legs, feeling the muscles of the leg one by one, releasing any tension there. Bringing awareness down to the feet, connecting to the floor beneath us, wiggling your toes and feeling the earth beneath you.
Speaker 3:Grounding yourself in the present moment.
Speaker 3:Another deep breath in and exhaling when you need to.
Speaker 3:Taking a moment now to envision a red cord extending from your tailbone and sending that cord deep into the ground. Grounding you in this moment, in this reality, in this existence. Imagine that that cord is tree branches that extend from your body and that they're multiplying and spreading throughout the ground beneath you. And supporting you and grounding yourself in this moment, in this time and space, connecting you to the earth so that you don't float off into the ether, Allowing you to draw from the energy of the planet the magic that exists all around us, in nature and inside ourselves. Taking another deep breath in and slowly exhaling and now just taking a moment to bring to mind anything that you're grateful for, anything that's going well, anything you're excited about. Just taking a moment to appreciate that, going ahead and giving your hands and feet a little wiggle, maybe rolling your shoulders back, moving the head side to side, just bringing yourself back into your body, to the physical and, whenever you're ready, taking one last deep breath in letting it go and then opening your eyes whenever you're ready.
Speaker 4:Okay, I fall asleep.
Speaker 3:How was that, Mike? That's true.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to tell you, when you say, move your head high, side to side, open our eyes, I was like are we really moving our head or are we just going to be doing that in our mind? But the dopest thing you said was fill the weight beneath you. And I think that's my biggest problem. I have a lot of weight beneath me, you know, and I was like, okay, like I never really heard it that way, where it made sense. You know, it's like fill the weight beneath you. And I'm like that's all I feel is the weight beneath me, because I don't have no weight, I just for everybody else weight. So I thought that was pretty cool. And only other strange thing is when you said the red cord, I don't know why I had a devil's tail. I'm going to say this is not how this is supposed to go.
Speaker 3:So are you familiar with, like the chakras and all that I am yes. So it's like the root chakra is red right so when we're grounding ourselves, extending that, that cord, from the tail, the tailbone, which is where the root chakra, lies.
Speaker 2:You know, no one ever like. I've never like had anybody ever say that or and all I saw was a little devil's tail come up. I said damn, and you pointy. It went to the ground though and follow instructions, but no, no, that was actually really really good, and I did. With the weight beneath me. I was like wow, that kind of resonated with me, like that's, my biggest struggle was getting rid of all the weight. That's like pulling me down. I guess everybody, everybody struggled. But to hear it that kind of way, like feel the weight beneath you, because it's weight you shouldn't feel is beneath you, but yet you're still feeling it. Crystal, how about? How about for you?
Speaker 4:I think that was amazing.
Speaker 2:She legit was about to go to sleep, she, over here, hit that little snow. Crystal is a lot more receptive than I am. She believes in a lot and not that she believes in a lot more but she goes to a medium and I'm like I didn't want to go, but I can see her to go. I went to a psychic one time when I was younger and then we'll close out right and the psychic told me I don't know why you're here, you should be telling me my future. And I'm like, bro, you is tripping, Give me my $20 and I'm out of here.
Speaker 2:But he saw like a psychic potential in me and I've been running from it since and I have really good intuition. But I run from that too because I feel like it's weird, Like I'm always that person that knows something's going to happen and then, when it happens, I'd be like damn, I should have, I should have did something or I should have told you or I should have reminded you. So anyway, there's a lot of things that you brought up. That is going to be my meditation tonight. I'm going to think on a lot of things you talked about, but I think also like I hold myself back from releasing those intuitions. You know, whatever they are, for some reason it's like people. I'm scared people aren't going to respond to them.
Speaker 3:Well, so interesting. But I think you have a duality inside of you. You may be running from and avoiding it, but also you attract it. The fact that I'm here as a guest on your show, right it's, there was something that gravitated us to one another, where there's a connection to the spiritual, even your background, right, like you're sitting in a galactic looking space, right, it's basically yeah, and I think yeah, there's, there's a lot of ties to it.
Speaker 2:My mom told me I lived my whole life in my head but that's because I had to invent worlds to escape this one. Yeah, so now is like I'm so disconnected I don't know how to reconnect it to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. One last thing I'd like to offer is most people, and myself included, we tend to run from what we don't want. But imagine, you know, if there was a loud explosion right now. Everyone just run away in different directions, and that's much different from being in like a race, when everyone is moving towards a specific goal, and you can get there much faster if you know what direction you're moving towards. So my invitation is for you to move in a direction of what do you want, not what are you running from.
Speaker 2:I just want to be in front of the bus and not behind it. I want to run from the bus and not chase it down. Crystal, come on, work with me.
Speaker 4:I'm thinking in that way. What if the bus?
Speaker 2:runs you over.
Speaker 3:It's like are you running from the bus now, Right?
Speaker 2:But it's going to look, it's going to prepare me to keep moving forward. But no, that was. That was really really, really, really dope what you said. And then I am going to take a lot of things away from this episode. I'm definitely going to hit you up and then we're definitely going to come back and have an inappropriate conversation.
Speaker 3:Cheers to that.
Speaker 2:But we thank you. Look, yeah, we're great at that that one. You think this was it. Well, we thank you guys so much for watching, thanks for tuning in, thanks for bearing with me, as we're just getting back to podcasting, but we're in the middle of season three now. We've got so many more dope episodes. We're going to have Jeff come back and have another conversation with us. Check him out, I know your website is foodforthought480.com 408.
Speaker 3:That's the San Jose area code, all right 408.
Speaker 2:I knew it was an area code. I'm going to make sure I listed right in the comic section. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you guys for watching. Remember to check out our sister podcast, trauma is expensive. Brand new episodes every Monday and I'll continue to have new episodes of these fucking feelings every Wednesday. Peace, love and blessings. Cheers, guys.